Not many people are named Kettlestrings.You don't have to live long in Oak Park to know that the first permanent, non-native family that settled here in 1833 carried this fetching moniker. The name didn't come with the territory, but survived various misspellings back to 14th century Yorkshire, England.

Remember James Danforth "Dan" Quayle, the 44th vice president of the United States? The guy who lost a 2000 presidential nomination bid for the Republican Party? Seems the Quayle family has deep roots here.

Geri Unger has been hired as Brookfield Zoo's new director of regional and local conservation. As part of the Zoo and Aquarium Partnership for the Great Lakes, Unger will be working with nearly 40 zoos and aquariums to determine what needs to be done for the restoration and conservation of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

I would hope that before you published a letter from a reader stating that there is no generator or emergency plan at Mills Park Tower, your staff would call the Housing Authority of the Village of Oak Park to confirm that.

I would like to see the list of communities' crime statistics with a notation on which have restrictive gun ordinances [Comparatively, Oak Park crime is still high, Viewpoints, Sept. 5]. Oak Park's anti-gun ordinance may well fall victim to the D.C. circuit's finding of an unconstitutional gun ban in our nation's capital.

I would like to thank the members of the Peace Group at Ascension Church for welcoming us to their meeting on a Thursday evening concerning the YMCA's plan to leave Oak Park and give up its SRO housing.